Yankees reschedule Opening Day for Friday

Yankees fans will have to wait one extra day to see their team begin the 2022 season.

The Yankees announced on Wednesday morning that Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, which was originally scheduled for Thursday against the Red Sox, will be moved to Friday because of the forecast of bad weather. 

According to weather.com, there's a 99% chance of rain in the Bronx on Thursday, with winds up to 17 mph.

Those with tickets for Thursday's game can use them on Friday or swap them for another 2022 Yankees game, subject to availability, according to the team. 

First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. and the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with a high temperature of 61 degrees. Gerrit Cole will start for the Yankees and former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi will pitch for the Red Sox.

The Major League Baseball season already has been delayed because of the lockout, which ended on March 12. The Yankees were supposed to open the season on March 31 against the Texas Rangers in Arlington. That three-game series has been tacked onto the end of the schedule in October.

Once the Yankees get going on Friday, fans will get to see a lot of them (weather permitting). Friday’s game is the first of 10 in a row without a day off as the Yankees host the Red Sox for three, the Blue Jays for four and then visit the Baltimore Orioles for a three-game series. The Yankees’ next scheduled off-day won’t come until April 18.

Thursday’s rainout will have one direct effect on the Yankees’ rotation. Manager Aaron Boone had the option of bringing back Cole for the fifth game of the season on Tuesday against Toronto. Since Cole’s Opening Day start was pushed back a day, Boone will go with fifth starter Nestor Cortes on Tuesday.

Also potentially pushed back: Aaron Judge’s self-imposed Opening Day deadline for reaching a new contract with the Yankees, whether it’s to set his 2022 salary or perhaps agree on a long-term deal.

Judge has said he doesn’t want to negotiate once the season starts. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman agreed, saying it would be “pencils down” if the season starts without an agreement. 

Judge, of course, could always chose to ignore his own deadline and negotiate during the season.

But on March 16, he said: “April 7, we won’t be talking about this anymore . . . The last thing I want to do is be in the middle of May after a good series and people talking, ‘Oh, you going to sign an extension?’ Or after an 0-for-4, ‘You should have signed that extension.’ We’ll try to get everything out of the way right now while we’re still prepping and getting ready for the season. But once it’s April 7 and a packed house in the Bronx, it’s going to be time to focus on winning ballgames and that’s it.”

Just change April 7 to April 8 and Judge’s sentiment still stands, apparently. 

Judge, 29, finished the Grapefruit League season 13-for-32 (.406) with four homers and a 1.347 OPS in 11 games.

His 2022 salary has yet to be set. The sides are headed to an arbitration hearing if they can’t agree to a deal. Judge filed for a salary of $21 million; the Yankees filed to pay him $17 million. Because of the lockout, arbitration hearings are taking place during the season.

On Monday, Judge said: “I understand the business side of it. I still have to come here, do what I have to do on the field, and if we sign a deal [or] if we don’t, it’s not going to affect me at all.”

On March 26, Cashman said: "Between now and Opening Day we'll make an offer and he'll obviously receive an offer and all the conversations will have taken place and will either resolve into a multiyear deal or it won't.”

Cashman has declined to update the status of negotiations since that statement.

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers sports media and business and professional sports (you know, games and trades and things). He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since Jan. 1, 2026.